Borsellino blames city bureaucrats for collusion

Monique Muise, The Gazette03.06.2013

Giuseppe (Joe) Borsellino, who is proving to be the most resistant witness to appear before the inquiry to date, began the day by stating that he had reflected on his past dealings with former FTQ boss Jocelyn Dupuis and could not recall that Dupuis ever intervened on his behalf. He later insisted: “To the best of my knowledge he didn’t help me get any contracts.”

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MONTREAL – Yes, there was a widespread system of collusion in place for years in Montreal's construction industry, but it was city bureaucrats — and not construction bosses — who masterminded the scheme.

That's the story according to construction magnate Giuseppe (Joe) Borsellino, who on Tuesday afternoon became the latest witness to confirm to the Charbonneau Commission that Montreal taxpayers were conned out of untold millions beginning in the late 1990s.

While previous witnesses have painted the construction bosses working for the city as the source of all the graft, Borsellino maintained that he and his fellow entrepreneurs were sucked in and even intimidated into colluding.

"The (city official) had everything in front of him to promote collusion, to promote corruption," he said. "There's people at the city who are very powerful. Very. And they can tell a contractor: 'You're not going to make any money unless you listen to me.' "

Borsellino singled out former city engineer (and past inquiry witness) Gilles Surprenant, whom he first met in early 1990 on a construction site in the Plateau Mont Royal. According to Borsellino, Surprenant suggested to him that he and other contractors "maybe arrange a system" for sharing public contracts.

The construction boss said he dismissed the idea at first, but a few years later, Surprenant allegedly came knocking again, this time promising to tweak city contracts and provide Borsellino with "tips" to help his company, Garnier Construction, come out ahead.

"I was happy with that," Borsellino testified. "I go: 'Wow. This is the way they're doing things, let me get into this.' "

Beginning in the late 1990s, Borsellino said he handed the municipal engineer thousands of dollars in cash kickbacks in return for his so-called "tips." At that point, he added, two other big construction bosses — Paolo Catania and Joey Piazza —were doing the same.

But by 2002, other companies began joining the collusion ring, Borsellino said, and he began to feel trapped by the system.

"What I didn't like is the power that those people (at the city) had acquired," he explained. "It became apparent that (the contractors) were in a system we couldn't get out of."

At one point, Borsellino even seemed to be suggesting that he had somehow been extorted. Justice France Charbonneau quickly intervened, however, reminding the witness that "there are limits" to what she can be expected to believe.

"So you're telling me the great mastermind of all of this was Gilles Surprenant, when he was 30 years old?" the judge asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yes," Borsellino replied.

Tuesday's testimony represented a complete reversal of Surprenant's own narrative on the stand last fall. The now-retired civil servant, who admitted to pocketing more than $700,000 in cash bribes, said it was the construction bosses who initially approached him and asked for his help.

Earlier in the day, Borsellino was questioned at length about his close relationship with Jocelyn Dupuis, a former high-ranking member of FTQ-Construction.

Asked if Dupuis had tried to help him secure a Rio Tinto Alcan contract worth $40 million in Saguenay, Borsellino said he had contacted his friend only once to "ask him a simple question about the mining field."

Following those denials, commission lawyer Simon Tremblay produced a series of tapes recorded by police in 2008 during an investigation involving Dupuis. Taken completely aback, Borsellino had no choice but to listen as his own recorded voice filled the room.

The tapes revealed that he had phoned Dupuis not once, but repeatedly about the Rio Tinto project, and that Dupuis had in turn contacted others to see whether there was a possibility of Borsellino securing the job. In the end, after six separate conversations, the men came to the conclusion that the contract was out of Borsellino's reach.

A seventh conversation from 2008 was then played, during which Borsellino and Dupuis are heard discussing a number of things — including the possibility that the FTQ's Fonds de solidarité might invest in a clothing company at Borsellino's request.

"We were talking about a lot of private contracts," Borsellino pointed out after hearing the tape. "These are not public."

Justice France Charbonneau replied that the important thing was the obviously close relationship between the two men, even though Dupuis was no longer an FTQ boss when the tapes were recorded.

"To the best of my knowledge he didn't help me get any contracts," Borsellino countered, while acknowledging that he was more than generous with Dupuis, even after Dupuis resigned from his position with the labour group.

In addition to dinners and hockey tickets, Borsellino said, he provided the keys to a $375,000 condominium unit at 1000 de la Commune St. to Dupuis, who used the space rent-free for three years. The construction boss said he also forked over $50,000 for a luxury Italian vacation for himself, Dupuis, former city of Montreal public works head Robert Marcil and engineering firm executive Yves Lortie in 2008.

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